I've set up Linux running WABI running Juno, for my grandmother. She uses it for email only. I have it configured to autologin and start X windows with KDE. It's running on a 486-66, so I had to "trim the fat" in the/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and other init scripts to cut down on the 2 minute plus boot time.
She's had trouble navigating the K menu (icons too small, even at 640x480, for her), but the panel icons are okay. So you'd probably want to put all regularly used icons on some kind of panel or the desktop, so they are easy to get to.
Other problems she had: She shuts the machine down every day and doesn't use it late at night, so the daily cron jobs never get run. This means the/var/log and/tmp, etc. dirs weren't getting cleaned out. The disk was almost full to start with, and she ran out of disk space after a year of use. You'd probably want to setup something to clean these up at boot time, so this doesn't occur.
Another problem she had was, for some reason, the date got set to the year 2007 (don't ask me how, she didn't have root access and I didn't have RedHat's timetool set up so she could use it). Juno refused to run. She couldn't change the date back because of not having root access. (Well, I walked her through it over the phone).
I now have made "wish" suid-root so she can run the timetool script, and have put an icon for it next to the clock on the KDE panel. (I would use sudo or super, but my zip drive got "click of death" during the trip to her house so I couldn't get the files off it).
For those saying an iMac or Windows would be easier, I disagree. For someone at this level, an iMac, Windows, or Linux will be about the same to them, assuming everything they need to use is already configured. No reason X should get screwed up if you aren't installing anything or messing with the hardware. My grandma has run Linux for a year, with only the above two incidents occuring. You probably couldn't say that for Windows.
An iMac would probably be fine, but, at least in my case, cost *was* an issue (you know, retired people tend to live on fixed incomes, etc.). The PC was minimal cost. I could have put Win31 on there without WABI, but I wouldn't trust it to be as stable as WABI. Of course, you could try using WINE to run Juno-- it might do that now. (I had problems with the Modem configuration, last time I tried)...
Good luck, and let me know if you have any specific questions about how to set something up...
I can't answer why you're having so many installation problems, but as for what to do once you get Linux installed: What do you want to do?
Just about anything you *can* do with a computer, can be done with Linux. Many things can be done more elegantly than in Windows/MacOS. Some less elegantly (at present; this will change).
If you are having trouble finding apps for a particular task, email me, and I'll try to help.
I would like to (respectfully) disagree. You stated:
People ask now, "Yeah but can my mom use it?", but a more question would be, "Yeah but does my mom need this?"
My response is, what *other* low cost solution is there for the unwashed masses? In the case of my grandmother, I've set up Linux for her so she could get on email for free. She couldn't afford to buy a computer, so I built one for her, from spare parts. I set her up with Juno, running on Windows emulation, running on Linux, and that's all she needs.
In addition, there are others, like her, who would like to have a low cost way to get into computing. While Linux, for you and I, is a power tool, the primary reason for these users is it's low cost. If I, as a power user, can create a distribution for these "low cost" users, which does everything *they* want or need (generally email, word processing, a personal finance package, and maybe some games), we can increase the number of happy computer users.
However, I have a personal motivation for this, besides helping out my family and friends. I desire open standards, and it has been my experience that Microsoft doesn't support that desire. If I sit in my UNIX corner, ignoring the lame Windows users, their number will increase, and Microsoft will kill open standards (even worse than it already has). Eventually, I will be affected, as I won't be able to communicate with other non-UNIX users. So, my motivation here, is to increase the number of people using open-standards-based systems, and in the process, increase the chance that I'll be able to continue communicating with the non-UNIX population at large.
I hope this motivation makes sense to you, and that you (and others who feel the same as you) will become a proponent of this reasoning. If we don't stand together, we will fall separately.
Cheers,
Warren E. Downs, Systems Engineer Advanced Businesslink, Kirkland, WA vwdowns@bigfoot.com warren@businesslink.com
Anyone wondering about Lnx4Win (how it works, how to install it, etc.) can contact me, as I'm one of the authors (along with Alex from MandrakeSoft).
I don't think Mandrake included my nice Windows setup tool, since the source was for C++Builder and they hadn't got it to compile under BC++ 5.0. But if you want that too, I can supply it.
Actually, I'm one of those. No, I'm not clueless-- I just prefer GTK for development but would like it to provide KDE integration (e.g. drag and drop between GTK apps and KDE apps).
What I would *really* like to see is Borland write a pre-compiler to translate standard C++Builder code to GCC compatible code. Most would be the same, but you'd need to handle the extra stuff C++Builder has, like the ability to define properties (they look like class members but act like methods, with the ability to do type checking, etc.)
Then, of course, provide their world-class IDE, with *two-way* tools (the IDE generates code which you can edit, unlike most GUI builders).
And include their huge component library, with pre-compiled components for drag-n-drop database access, FTP, HTTP, POP3, GUI Widgets, etc.
If they get the compiler right, they should be able to (mostly) recompile their components to run on Linux. They could use winelib to help them do this easily (though that would give the apps a Windows look and feel).
So, that's what I'd do if I were Borland (and what I hope they do).
Warren E. Downs, Systems Engineer Advanced BusinessLink
I for one don't have a problem paying for software in general. It's platform-type stuff that I have a problem with, and simple utilities I could write myself but don't want to take the time.
Windows has tons of Shareware authors trying to make $5 here and $10 there on simple utilities, all of which are free for Linux. On the other hand, I have already payed good money for Civ:CTP, Hopkins FBI, and WABI (so I could run my company's proprietary Win 3.1 software, which didn't run properly under WINE).
So, I think if you find the right market, people will pay for Linux software. Just don't try to sell Office software for home use;-)
Rather than rewriting instructions you detect on a scan of a page of program text, you could possibly set a hardware breakpoint for the instruction. Since there are only 4 hardware breakpoints (at least on the 386), you would only be able to do this on pages containing less than 4 instructions that need to be watched.
I wrote a simple program to scan all the windows dlls and exes for "dangerous" instructions. I found that for most exes and dlls, there were less than 4 instructions per page that would be dangerous. For the remaining ones, you could rewrite the instructions. But then, you have to make the page execute only (not readable or writeable-- is this possible?) and trap any access to it by the processor, to fool it into seeing the original instruction instead of the rewritten one.
Or, you could simply do single step on that page (which might be a viable option since there would be so few of those pages in the average OS-- unless someone specifically wanted to make your VM perform badly;-) ).
Actually, multiple widget libraries can be used simultaneously on the same window/desktop manager. You can run GTK apps under Motif, GNOME, KDE, etc.
There are some extra features of GNOME and KDE which may not work across widget sets (e.g. drag and drop) until GNOME and KDE get standardized (which they are working on).
But you can still run the program under your favorite environment.
Checking out the URL you listed for LAETOS, it appears that they are working together with mandrake (the emails for their hardware detection section are on the mandrake site)
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I've set up Linux running WABI running Juno, for my grandmother. She uses it for email only. I have it configured to autologin and start X windows with KDE. It's running on a 486-66, so I had to "trim the fat" in the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and other init scripts to cut down on the 2 minute plus boot time.
/var/log and /tmp, etc. dirs weren't getting cleaned out. The disk was almost full to start with, and she ran out of disk space after a year of use. You'd probably want to setup something to clean these up at boot time, so this doesn't occur.
She's had trouble navigating the K menu (icons too small, even at 640x480, for her), but the panel icons are okay. So you'd probably want to put all regularly used icons on some kind of panel or the desktop, so they are easy to get to.
Other problems she had: She shuts the machine down every day and doesn't use it late at night, so the daily cron jobs never get run. This means the
Another problem she had was, for some reason, the date got set to the year 2007 (don't ask me how, she didn't have root access and I didn't have RedHat's timetool set up so she could use it). Juno refused to run. She couldn't change the date back because of not having root access. (Well, I walked her through it over the phone).
I now have made "wish" suid-root so she can run the timetool script, and have put an icon for it next to the clock on the KDE panel. (I would use sudo or super, but my zip drive got "click of death" during the trip to her house so I couldn't get the files off it).
For those saying an iMac or Windows would be easier, I disagree. For someone at this level, an iMac, Windows, or Linux will be about the same to them, assuming everything they need to use is already configured. No reason X should get screwed up if you aren't installing anything or messing with the hardware. My grandma has run Linux for a year, with only the above two incidents occuring. You probably couldn't say that for Windows.
An iMac would probably be fine, but, at least in my case, cost *was* an issue (you know, retired people tend to live on fixed incomes, etc.). The PC was minimal cost. I could have put Win31 on there without WABI, but I wouldn't trust it to be as stable as WABI. Of course, you could try using WINE to run Juno-- it might do that now. (I had problems with the Modem configuration, last time I tried)...
Good luck, and let me know if you have any specific questions about how to set something up...
Warren E. Downs
I can't answer why you're having so many installation problems, but as for what to do once you get Linux installed: What do you want to do?
Just about anything you *can* do with a computer, can be done with Linux. Many things can be done more elegantly than in Windows/MacOS. Some less elegantly (at present; this will change).
If you are having trouble finding apps for a particular task, email me, and I'll try to help.
Cheers,
Warren
I would like to (respectfully) disagree. You stated:
People ask now, "Yeah but can my mom use it?", but a more question would be, "Yeah but does my mom need this?"
My response is, what *other* low cost solution is there for the unwashed masses? In the case of my grandmother, I've set up Linux for her so she could get on email for free. She couldn't afford to buy a computer, so I built one for her, from spare parts. I set her up with Juno, running on Windows emulation, running on Linux, and that's all she needs.
In addition, there are others, like her, who would like to have a low cost way to get into computing. While Linux, for you and I, is a power tool, the primary reason for these users is it's low cost. If I, as a power user, can create a distribution for these "low cost" users, which does everything *they* want or need (generally email, word processing, a personal finance package, and maybe some games), we can increase the number of happy computer users.
However, I have a personal motivation for this, besides helping out my family and friends. I desire open standards, and it has been my experience that Microsoft doesn't support that desire. If I sit in my UNIX corner, ignoring the lame Windows users, their number will increase, and Microsoft will kill open standards (even worse than it already has). Eventually, I will be affected, as I won't be able to communicate with other non-UNIX users. So, my motivation here, is to increase the number of people using open-standards-based systems, and in the process, increase the chance that I'll be able to continue communicating with the non-UNIX population at large.
I hope this motivation makes sense to you, and that you (and others who feel the same as you) will become a proponent of this reasoning. If we don't stand together, we will fall separately.
Cheers,
Warren E. Downs, Systems Engineer
Advanced Businesslink, Kirkland, WA
vwdowns@bigfoot.com
warren@businesslink.com
I don't think Mandrake included my nice Windows setup tool, since the source was for C++Builder and they hadn't got it to compile under BC++ 5.0. But if you want that too, I can supply it.
Actually, I'm one of those. No, I'm not clueless-- I just prefer GTK for development but would like it to provide KDE integration (e.g. drag and drop between GTK apps and KDE apps).
Warren E. Downs
What I would *really* like to see is Borland write a pre-compiler to translate standard C++Builder code to GCC compatible code. Most would be the same, but you'd need to handle the extra stuff C++Builder has, like the ability to define properties (they look like class members but act like methods, with the ability to do type checking, etc.)
Then, of course, provide their world-class IDE, with *two-way* tools (the IDE generates code which you can edit, unlike most GUI builders).
And include their huge component library, with pre-compiled components for drag-n-drop database access, FTP, HTTP, POP3, GUI Widgets, etc.
If they get the compiler right, they should be able to (mostly) recompile their components to run on Linux. They could use winelib to help them do this easily (though that would give the apps a Windows look and feel).
So, that's what I'd do if I were Borland (and what I hope they do).
Warren E. Downs, Systems Engineer
Advanced BusinessLink
I for one don't have a problem paying for software in general. It's platform-type stuff that I have a problem with, and simple utilities I could write myself but don't want to take the time.
;-)
Windows has tons of Shareware authors trying to make $5 here and $10 there on simple utilities, all of which are free for Linux. On the other hand, I have already payed good money for Civ:CTP, Hopkins FBI, and WABI (so I could run my company's proprietary Win 3.1 software, which didn't run properly under WINE).
So, I think if you find the right market, people will pay for Linux software. Just don't try to sell Office software for home use
Rather than rewriting instructions you detect on a scan of a page of program text, you could possibly set a hardware breakpoint for the instruction. Since there are only 4 hardware breakpoints (at least on the 386), you would only be able to do this on pages containing less than 4 instructions that need to be watched.
;-) ).
I wrote a simple program to scan all the windows dlls and exes for "dangerous" instructions. I found that for most exes and dlls, there were less than 4 instructions per page that would be dangerous. For the remaining ones, you could rewrite the instructions. But then, you have to make the page execute only (not readable or writeable-- is this possible?) and trap any access to it by the processor, to fool it into seeing the original instruction instead of the rewritten one.
Or, you could simply do single step on that page (which might be a viable option since there would be so few of those pages in the average OS-- unless someone specifically wanted to make your VM perform badly
Actually, multiple widget libraries can be used simultaneously on the same window/desktop manager. You can run GTK apps under Motif, GNOME, KDE, etc.
There are some extra features of GNOME and KDE which may not work across widget sets (e.g. drag and drop) until GNOME and KDE get standardized (which they are working on).
But you can still run the program under your favorite environment.
Checking out the URL you listed for LAETOS, it appears that they are working together with mandrake (the emails for their hardware detection section are on the mandrake site)
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